Suspect in killing of Detroit synagogue prez Samantha Woll will go to trial

The suspect accused of stabbing a popular Detroit synagogue president to death last fall will stand trial, a judge ruled on Tuesday – as grisly new details emerged about the violent killing.

Michael Jackson-Bolanos, 28, will face a slew of charges – including felony murder during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a larceny or first-degree home invasion – related to the Oct. 21 death of Samantha Woll, the Detroit News reported.

After a two-day hearing, Judge Kenneth King of Detroit’s 36th District Court found that there was enough evidence to hold Jackson-Bolanos accountable for the charges.

The judge also added a first-degree premeditated murder count.

An arraignment on the case is set for Jan. 30, according to the Detroit News.

Woll, 40, was stabbed eight times inside her Lafayette Park apartment after returning from a wedding on the night of Oct. 20, police said, the outlet explained.

A motion detector in the residence triggered in the rabbi’s living room around 4:20 a.m., suggesting the attack occurred around that time, prosecutors said during the suspect’s initial examination last week, the Detroit News added.

After she was stabbed, Woll is believed to have stumbled out of her apartment and eventually crumpled on the front lawn, police said.

“I wasn’t even sure it was a body at first. As I approached to see if that person was in need of assistance, then I realized that the person was in a very bad situation and decided I needed to go for help,” neighbor Kevin Mull told the court last week of the moment he found Woll’s body around 6:30 a.m.

Woll was barefoot and in the fetal position, and her skin had turned a bluish color, he recalled.

Five Detroit police officers testified on Tuesday, the Detroit News said.

A few of the officers had tracked Jackson-Bolanos after he was seen on video standing in a school parking lot holding a bag, the outlet reported.

Additional footage showed the suspect walking two miles from his own apartment to the neighborhood where the killing took place.

After Woll’s stabbing, Jackson-Bolanos got rid of his light-colored bag and the surgical gloves he had been seen wearing before, Detroit Police Sgt. Lance Sullivan said in court.

When officer’s later searched his apartment, they found a black jacket with a bloodstain that was later DNA matched to Woll, the Detroit News said.

On Tuesday, however, Jackson-Bolanos’ defense attorney, Brian Brown, pointed out that the blood traces were minimal, even though the crime scene was quite bloody.

“Had my client stabbed her eight times, you’d have a lot more blood on the jacket than two microscopic specks,” Brown insisted, per the Detroit News.

When the judge asked Brown how the suspect got Woll’s blood on him, the lawyer suggested “maybe it was wrong place at the wrong time.”

Maybe Jackson-Bolanos came across the body before Mull, and “maybe he reached over and touched it,” Brown added.

Judge King shared Brown’s concerns about the minimal blood staining.

“That’ll be for the trier of the fact to determine at trial,” he said before binding the case for trial.

At the time of her death, Woll lead the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue.

Her killing immediately grabbed headlines in part due to its proximity to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, and the subsequent concerns about anti-semitism and anti-Jewish violence.

Early in the investigation, however, police clarified that there was no evidence suggesting the stabbing was a hate crime.

A suspect was jailed in November, but was released without charges. Jackson-Bolanos was finally taken into custody in mid-December.

With Post wires